"Push back? Do you mean intentionally suppress laughter for fear of being un-PC? Heckle (thats fine BTW)? Defame? Ban? Throw stones? Chase out of town? Burn books? Worse?"

Awfully hyperbolic. You seem to think someone saying "I don't like this" is brushing up with burning books?

Because I see that as an act of free speech. Protest, boycotts, etc aren't suddenly forcing anyone to do something or preventing anyone from saying anything. It's meeting speech with more speech. The pinion of free speech principles.

But free speech has never been freedom from consequences. You can say whatever edgu thing you like but you can't expect everyone to just shut up and be fine with it.

Either you accept being edgy is going to rile people up and get you reactions or you go back to doing boring ass material. Imagining that someone not enjoying your joke is akin to a mob trying to murder you only really shows how thin skinned comedians are to any criticism. Ignore it.

And the issue of disinvitations to colleges is, again, more free speech acts. Yet somehow, unless the speech is toothless and ineffective, its a melt down by thin skinned comedians.

Look, you need to know your audience when you do a gig. You don't walk into a bar mitzvah gig and tell all your edgy antisemetic jokes then get wounded at the "PC outrage" when people get mad. Yet somehow going to a college during a rise in college activism against racism/sexism and telling your "women are shit, right?" jokes is supposed to be no issue?

And the other issue in this: colleges are viewed more and more as a services paid transaction: I'm paying thousands to this place to provide me a product. So its no wonder students feel more empowered to complain, especially when their money from activity fees is being spent on something they don't like.

Saying "you owe us $500 and we're going to use it to pay the 'Muslims are all rapists' guy to come here and talk" isn't the best way to make people feel like their money is being used with their best interests in mind.

Honestly, if you feel like protests or any act of free speech you disagree with is akin to burning books or destroying lives... Maybe you should grow a thicker skin. Everyone doesn't have to like what you say and its not some afront to your rights when they don't.

>> ^raverman:

They should build a safety feature - at least in these rooms with lots of movable dangerous objects.
e.g. something that launches a heavy net from the ceiling to hold everything to the ground.
You can't stop heavy seas, but you can prepare to keep people safe so they aren't flying 20 feet into a table leg.


If you think about it, that idea is really bad.

- the logistics of suspending a net above a very large room - including support pillars (so it'd have to be lots of nets or a huge net that's made around the pillars with holes for the pillars)
- never mind a HEAVY net, and the weight of the net on these sophisticated pieces of "dropping" mechanisms
- you'd have an ugly "heavy" net hanging over a dining room
- which would then drop in a storm trapping furniture AND PEOPLE
- power failure = heavy net falling on people?
- general mishaps with a heavy net suspended above people?
- the cost of getting sued by people getting hit by a heavy net?
- you'd have to have loads of release mechanisms to go at the same time to release said net
- you can't have anything upstanding/on the walls which would catch the net and stop the full release
- you'd have to trigger it whilst very stable otherwise the net would fall incorrectly/warp in the air
- the net would need to be pinioned at various places in the room otherwise things would just slide around under it because there's no tension to keep things held in place even if they got caught

- and if you're referring to the fork lift truck, i'd like to see the net that could stop a fork lift from sliding around a floor which suddenly becomes a wall assuming all the other problems listed were overcome. THAT would be a net hooper and chief brody would have wanted.

Ahh, I have fond memories of playing with LEGOs as a kid, and making fantastic things with technic blocks like a foot-long car that had rack and pinion steering, working suspension, etc. Most likely 90% of which came from instruction sheets.

And then there is this guy. He utterly destroys my illusions of having "unique and special snowflake" childhood experiences, but does it in a way that is so awesome that my first reaction is to /grovel rather than be jealous...

>> ^Seric:

I'd love to know how this thing gets the torque required to efficiently mash those engine blocks. The only thing I could think of is a hydraulic rack and pinion setup.


You are correct about hydraulics... hydraulic pump powered by really BIG 3-phase motors. Some of these monstrosities can consume up to 200kW (!!!) and are serious business.

I'd love to know how this thing gets the torque required to efficiently mash those engine blocks. The only thing I could think of is a hydraulic rack and pinion setup.

>> ^RedSky:
@NordlichReiter
The dollar is only really down to levels it was pre-financial crisis. Taking your reference point at the height of the global financial crisis is unfair because everyone was buying up US treasury bonds and over inflating the currency.
The fact that countries are considering moving away from the US dollar as the reserve currency, the currency they trade in, and which they keep as foreign reserves is a good thing in the long term. This has kept the US dollar overvalued for decades, and has contributed significantly to the unsustainable consumption and housing binge, and was obvious a major catalyst for the global financial crisis. A rebalancing would put the onus further on factors of GDP such as investment as a contributor to economic growth.
To say that the economy is in recovery is not disingenuous. They're simply using leading indicators such as stock price or inventory levels, which are generally good predictors of economic recovery and in this case a pending fall in unemployment. The scale of that is anyone's guess though, as is how much of the economy was spurned by returning business confidence in the private sector rather that purely government stimulus and specific programs such as first home buyer's grants and cash for clunkers.


Cash for clunkers was the biggest waste. The other parts of your arguments I cannot find fault with.

Taking assets that can be modified, recycled reused, and even melted down for metals and destroying them and leaving them in a dump yard is a waste. Why would you destroy something that has re-usable parts and resources?

Differential gears, transmission parts, bearings, four wheel drive parts, pinions, springs, headers, skid plates, hubs, disks, and shoes. Instead they put sodium silicate into the engines. All because the government doesn't want the cars traded in being re-sold back into the market.

I would argue that having a hulking dump of cars, like I see on the side of the Highway is worse than seeing a repaired 78 Volkswagen van that runs on diesel, or electricity.

When he points to his head and it reads "Pinion", that's when it hit:

Too white, Bad timing.